National Highways length slated to double: Nitin Gadkari

Nitin Jairam Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport, Highways and Shipping of India, stated that the length of national highways is slated to double from 95,000 kilometres to 2,00,000 kilometers. He summarized the initiatives and reforms of the government for improving existing infrastructure, creating new infrastructure and inviting investments as also various models of Public Private Partnership.

Some other initiatives include major access control highways to reduce congestion by 50%, and Hybrid Annuity Model for attracting private investments. He specifically focused on revamping Inland Waterways of rivers like Ganga and Brahmaputra which would help not only in reducing traffic on roads but also create a sustainable and cost effective mode of transportation for major corporations and a tourist attraction.

Rana Kapoor, Founder, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, YES Bank, India, also said that with the current leadership and right policies, he can see two major opportunities in Indian Infrastructure. First, urban infrastructure in the form of Smart Cities with hospitals, schools, affordable housing etc. and second, in transportation and logistics where all the aspects such as roads, highways, ports, railways and airports could be focused on. He stated that with one percent of the Indian GDP being invested in infrastructure, we could potentially create 3.4 million jobs in comparison to 1.5 million in USA and 1.3 million in Brazil.

Sunil Kanoria, Vice Chairman, SREI, Infrastructure Finance, said that the PPP model is based on the strength of both the parties entering in the partnership and India’s strength is its capital. He highlighted brownfield assets with reduced risks and greenfield assets as the optimum areas of investment in India.